When David Levine passed away in December of 2009, he was rightfully best-known for his thousands of pen and ink caricatures. Most of these graced the pages of The New York Review of Books for 44 years, though he had many other clients including Esquire, Time, The New Yorker, Sports Illustrated and even Rolling Stone.
No politician, ruler, celebrity, writer, musician or fellow artist, living or dead, escaped Levine's pointed pen nib, crisp lines or rapier-sharp visual wit. He was blunt and called people (including himself) as he saw them, but was never overtly cruel and would, in fact, betray a tender heart towards those he championed (think: Eleanor Roosevelt portrayed as a swan).
David Levine hoped to (and should) be remembered for working in more than one medium. He painted in oils for much of his adult life, though a late-1960s studio fire destroyed much of this work. In later years he turned to watercolors for his realistic paintings of Coney Island, a favored subject.
